Water distribution systems typically include a network of pipes, one or more metered incoming sources of water, storage tanks and a plurality of consumers. Current practice in measuring water consumption or demand is to meter the amount of water supplied to the input of the water distribution system on a daily basis. However, this measurement does not account for the volume of water either stored or removed from storage on a daily basis. Accordingly, current measurement practices cannot derive the incremental amount of water actually being consumed and/or lost during short periods of time. Typically, water distribution system operators derive a rough measure of system demand by reading the consumers' water meters over a given period of time, summing the measurements, and then comparing that amount to the metered amount of water input into the distribution system over the same period of time. These two amounts are then compared to determine the amount of unaccounted-for water, deemed to be system losses. A drawback of this method of measurement is that not all of the consumption meters are read at the same time as the incoming water meter. Further, the consumption meter readings are normally spread out over a longer period of time. To compensate for this, operators usually use a running average of consumption (accumulated consumers' metered amounts) versus the incoming water to derive unaccounted for water losses. This is both an impractical and extremely inaccurate method for determining losses. There remains a need for a way to more accurately assess the amount of demand and/or loss in a water distribution system.
A particular problem for operators of water distribution systems, such as municipalities, is unaccounted-for water losses due to leakage in the system. Leaks cause wastage of water, which is often a scarce and expensive commodity. Leaks are also an economic burden to the operators, as they must pay the expenses of obtaining and treating the water that is ultimately lost and not consumed by a paying subscriber. Accordingly, there is a need for a way to efficiently detect leaks in a water distribution system.